Over the last few months, Ofsted have been calling providers to talk to them in some depth about the impact of coronavirus on their settings. They have now published a series of 5 reports covering different ages of children from early to later years and SEND –
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ofsted-children-hardest-hit-by-covid-19-pandemic-are-regressing-in-basic-skills-and-learning
The early years report is linked from here.
It was interesting to read what the news picked up from the early years report – little positive sadly! Instead of noting that there was an increase in childcare providers over the period of lockdown, news reports focused on negatives such as children forgetting how to use cutlery!
Childcare.co.uk bucked the trend with their tweet...
However, in this blog I want to look at the changes in provision and ways of working that different providers reported to Ofsted – because we can learn so much from each other, especially in unprecedented times such as these where we are all pretty much making it up as we go along.
From the Ofsted report...
Instead of doom and gloom about cutlery, I thought it might be helpful to note which changes providers have found to be making the most positive impact on their daily working lives...
- Simple changes such as limiting shared resources and making changes to meals / snacks to give children individual servings reduces the risk of cross contamination.
- Less parent one-to-one contact because of doorstep drops and collections has generally led to better engagement with online information sharing about, for example, daily routines, children’s development and ideas for home learning.
- Information sharing with parents has covered, for example, signposting local food banks, how to contact public health, domestic violence support and sharing public health guidance.
- Some group settings are finding staggered arrivals and departures work well for staff and children.
- Virtual tours of the setting, rather than face-to-face show-rounds, are being used to keep staff and children safer.
- There is generally more focus on hygiene, handwashing and teaching children about germs.
- Smaller bubbles / groups of children lead to more and better quality interactions between children and staff – this has to be a huge positive!
- More adult-led activities lead to higher quality engagements with children and staff find they have more time to explain things and have deeper conversations with the children.
- Providers are taking more time to repeat activities to make sure children’s learning is secure.
In our childminding setting, we have noticed...
- Faster drop offs and collections mean we can get back to playing with the children quicker.
- More outside play benefits physical development and wellbeing for us as well as the children.
- Sharing home learning ideas through WhatsApp has led to better quality parent interactions about what they are doing as a family at home.
- The house and resources / equipment etc are cleaner and hands are washed more regularly which will hopefully lead to less illness in the future.
- We have shared information with parents throughout lockdown and beyond and they have thankfully said they are happy with the changes and feel safe leaving their children here - which means a lot to us.
Notes for the future...
- We are still struggling with sharing forms with parents – we want to limit paper transfer so we don't send home written forms and online form sharing is proving problematic. This is something we need to work on more.
- Despite the on-off-on again disapplication, we did a Progress Check at 2 for parents to show the health visitor but the meeting was on the phone and the health visitor was not interested in our contribution. This is a recurring theme and something we want to discuss in more detail with our Local Authority.
- We have embraced Ofsted’s changes to paperwork expectations and now only do minimal documentation for our children – we are confident we can talk about their progress at length. This has freed up a lot more time for play and interactions (as reported by settings to Ofsted as well) and is a really positive outcome of the changes.
- After engagement with Dr Julian Grenier, lead writer of Development Matters 2020, we are confident that we have a way forwards with our curriculum. This has led to better quality experiences for the children and we are more relaxed, with higher wellbeing as a result ... again, this can only be a good thing! You can watch the video with Dr Grenier about the changes free here -
https://www.childcare.co.uk/childminders/development-matters.
It is more important than ever that we come together we learn from each other and we are grateful to Ofsted for publishing this report because it gives us access to how the sector is feeling and how they are coping.
If you have any questions, please ask. Sarah